HELP!! ONLY SLEEPS HELD. Experienced moms

amother

Navyblue ↓

Mon, May 27 2024, 8:29 pm

We had this with our last baby!!! It was a nightmare!!!
My husband and I would take turns every other night not doing anything but holding him in the rocking chair and then at bedtime he'd sleep with one of us. It was out of total desperation - I hated the idea (and honestly still do hate the idea) of a baby in bed and not in a crib/bassinet!

The omeprazole definitely helped my baby but wasn't a catch-all solution. He had a few allergies and it really took some time until we figured all of them out and then his sleeping evened out and he was able to go down. We did sleep train at 7/8 months when I felt like I could handle leaving him crying and I knew he was gaining, happy, comfortable with his food etc - the method we used was from a company called baby sleep made simple - we did it with my 1st, didn't need it with my 2nd, and it helped my 3rd a lot too - just to get used to the idea that he had to fall asleep by himself in his crib and stay there. I don't feel comfortable posting the whole method since it's something you have to purchase, but the long and short of it is that each night you put him down, pat/sing/say nice things and then leave, let the baby cry for a specific amount of time which increases and then go back if he's still crying after that time and repeat as long as needed. Officially it's a 21 day program, never took my kids that long to settle in and catch on to the routine. It's not totally gentle, but it's not just leaving them. With this kid I was just desperate to sleep without him in my room or bed.

amother

↑ OP

Mon, May 27 2024, 8:38 pm

amother Navyblue wrote:

I really appreciate this.
Reads like you really do understand. Guess I have a little longer to try a program but I will look into this

miami85

Mon, May 27 2024, 10:35 pm

I had this with my 4th too. He only slept well next to me/in my bed. Drove me nuts. I suspect the reason was reflux--but he wasn't a spitter, just prefered sleeping sitting up or on me. It wasn't until we were on a trip and stuck in terrible traffic for over an hour and could not stop/pull over and I knew he wasn't hungry and he was 6 months old that he was forced to figure out how to self-soothe and he was able to do it from then on. (I'm not a huge advocate of cry-it-out unless I know that nothing else is bothering them, but we were in a situation with no good solution). He finally slept in a crib for the next 9 months until he figured out how to climb out--then we had a different problem.